NFF shortlists Yusuf, Saintfiet, Le Guen for Super Eagles’ chief coach

Amaju Melvin Pinnick

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has shortlisted three coaches for consideration for the post of Chief Coach of Super Eagles, and will name the successful one on Monday.

A statement by the NFF on Friday in Abuja listed the three coaches to include Super Eagles’ caretaker coach Salisu Yusuf.

The rest two are former Ethiopia coach Tom Saintfiet, and Frenchman Paul Le Guen, who once coached Cameroon.

“On Friday at the Glass House, the NFF Technical and Development Committee pored over more than 20 applications before cutting the list to three.

“Among those who showed interest in coaching the Super Eagles are Giovanni Solinas, Saintfiet, Hey Antoine, Mark Wotte, Yusuf, Ernesto Paulo Calvinho, Dorian Marin, and Le Guen.

“Others are Miodrag Jesic, Perry Hansen, Ove Pedersen, Adebayo Lateef Kola, Sylvanus Okpala and Peter Ijeh.

“The rest are Vladimir Petrovic-Pizon, Lodewijk de Kruif, Kenichi Yatsuhashi, Bjorn Frank Peters and Ricki Herbert,’’ the statement disclosed.

Saintfiet, a 43-year-old Belgian, has coached the national teams of Namibia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Yemen, Malawi and Togo.

He has also worked with the Qatar national under-17 side, Young Africans FC of Tanzania and Free State Stars FC in South Africa.

Yusuf, 54, was capped by Nigeria at under-20 level and won FA Cup titles with El-Kanemi Warriors of Maiduguri as a player.

He coached top clubs Kano Pillars, El-Kanemi Warriors and Enyimba FC, and assisted Super Eagles’ chief coaches Samson Siasia and Stephen Keshi (who died last month).

Yusuf was caretaker coach for two friendly matches, which the Eagles won against Mali and Luxembourg in Europe at the end of May.

Frenchman Le Guen, 52, played for Brest, Nantes and Paris Saint Germain (PSG) and won 17 caps for France, before coaching Rennes, Lyon, PSG (in France) and Glasgow Rangers (in Scotland).

He led the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon to qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals and also coached Oman.

Speaking on the development, Chairman of NFF’s Technical and Development Committee, Chris Green, said the shortlist was on the basis of a set of criteria.

“We set a criteria with which we evaluated the nearly two dozen applications and then agreed on the three persons that we shortlisted.

“The Committee will now meet on July 18 to interview the shortlisted candidates and immediately name the next Super Eagles’ Head Coach,” he said.